This will sound weird...

CorvusCorax

CorvusCorax

Deary me...
Joined
15 January 2008
Messages
62,151
Location
End of the pier
Visit site
Can dogs be allergic to meat????


Yes, I am at that stage
confused.gif
 
He's been on a fish based food (JWB) and itched with that too.

He was pretty bad this morning. He has been tried on chicken, pork/liver and beef so far.
Having said that it has only been a week, perhaps the other stuff is still working out of his system.

Argh!
 
Cheers. Apparently there is something called Hills XD which is meant to be good too?

Someone else has said that good old Feedwell is the best thing for GSDs and their quirks.

Don't know what to do for the best
frown.gif

Will ring Expensive Vet in the morning.
 
When mine were on a vegetarian diet they ate a fabulous, super-quality Italian product, called Aniwell (www.aniwell.it). It wasn't expensive (not more than most good mainstream brands) so it might be worth contacting them to see if they deliver to or have stockists in NI.

They also do not test on animals which has always been my main priority when choosing pet food.

Otherwise St Hippolyt (yes the horse feed brand!!) do a vegetarian, cereal-based dog food but I don't think that's enough on its own, unlike the Aniwell which was created to be fed on its own.
 
this will sound like a weird reply....
BUT I recall you are a vetbed user?? I have known several dogs (one of mine included) allergic to vetbed as odd as that may sound...is it possible he also has contact dermatitis issues alongside his other allergies? I don't use any of the stuff anymore (as much as I used to swear by it) one of my parsons has quite severe reaction to it. Also on the contact dermatitis route another terrier now deceased had awful reactions to anything used on the carpet. B doesn't spend that much time in the house I know but if he was bad this morning did he spend any prolonged time in the house yesterday? Do you use anything on the carpets? Sorry if you have ruled all this out (I realise as I'm writing that you probably have!)
smile.gif
 
He was doing it before he had the vetbed in, the vetbed only went in last week.

He is in the house now and was last night as I want to keep an eye on him and make sure he keeps his jumper on
blush.gif

His run is outside the window and from watching him and walking him, he does it outside as much as he does it inside, if not more (obvs if he does it inside, I vocally stop him, which is why I have him in, if I see him doing it when he is outside, I bang the window
blush.gif
).

Nothing on carpets or rug, just a hoover once a week.

But thanks x
 
Ah sounds unlikely to be a contact thing then. I thought you would have those bases covered but figured there was no harm in mentioning just incase!
smile.gif

x
 
All suggestions welcome, there might be *something* I have missed.....we thought tree pollen because when he goes to kennels, he always comes back with a full coat, same feed etc.

Could it be plastic?! That is what his box is made of.
 
If you want to rule out plastic, feed him in a plastic bowl, if he is really allergic to contact with plastic, as far as I know, his nose should react within a few days.


By the way, my oldest cat began having a very sensitive stomach some years ago, to long story for tonight as I have an early morning ahead, at one point we tested giving her an ultra, super anti-all-food-allergies food, made of some strange fish and cassava root, within a few hours she puked and had the runs like never before...
We can only do our best and try new things, unless he has such a strong reaction as my cat, try and have ice in your stomach (not easy when he is itching and all you want to do is help end it) and give his body, as you said, time to get rid of the last thing you tried to rule out.

Good luck and sympathy.
 
That's it Finny, I just want to make him well NOW and realistically, it doesn't happen like that, he's had so much to deal with in such a short space of time and he has taken it all without a grumble.

Thanks xxx
 
Is he insured? I would suggest running a full allergy screen which tests all the major protein types (beef, pork, chicken, fish etc.) plus pollens,dust mites etc. Thing is, it is bloomin expensive, depending on your vet about £150. Maybe worth doing if you don't get anywhere though? The place we use at work is Yorktest lab but I'd imagine your vets would use somewhere more local!
 
Unlikely to be a true allergy but chicken is a very common trigger for skin disorders in dogs, yes. Try chicken free first before eliminating all meats completely. If it is meat in genereal that is the problem, then fish is likely to be the answer as suggested.
 
Mum and Dads 1st lab was allergic to dust mites, grass pollen and tree pollen . It was an absolute nightmare and she used to drag herself round anny carpet or grass or her bed on her tummy to scratch it and she used to chew her feet and all her underneath to pieces till it bled and wept.
They had her diagnosed at a specialist ( think it was in solihull) she had a monthly injection at the vets ( no idea what it was but i might be able to find out but it was imported from america especially for her) and in the end steroids which kept things on a level.
In terms of dog food friend is a vegan and buys dog food for her dog ( that is a vegan too!) from here http://www.veggiepets.com/shop/vegetarian-vegan-dog-food.html
Fingers crossed you can get it under control
 
Jakey has various food allergies and when we first realised the vet offered two options:

- try him on an exclusion diet. This is very cheap but very time consuming. Basically he would need to eat one thing to the exclusion of others for two weeks to see if he had a reaction, then move on to the next kind of food, until we identified all the feeds he had a problem with and all the ones he did not.

- do the allergy test, which is expensive but it gives you an answer (although it works better with common allergies than something really weird so it does help to have an idea of what might be causing the problem).

At the time I came across Science Plan Low Allergen Z/D and gave it a try and as it turned out he was fine on that. We still don't know what he is allergic to, but whatever it is it's not in that food so problem solved. They now have a new No Allergen product (can't remember what it's called, O/D?) but for some reason Jakey can't tolerate that.

They also do Science Plan Sensitive Skin which may be an option worth trying.
 
How far away is the kennels? Could there be something different in their water to yours? Maybe try distilling his water?
 
If you do food exclusion it is really the easiest way to rule out or pick up a food allergy. BUT it is really time consuming (should spend approx 6 weeks on each diet type to allow full run through of the system and see bodys reaction to them)
You have no treats, no extras or anything BUT the special diet.

Often they are put on either a medically designed diet (which are the hills, purina, royal canin ones etc, good but v expensive) or you can try a home made "random meat" version which is often rice and a totally random protein source from your butchers (they often have weird and wonderful meats in now like ostrich or something) and you try them on this for 6 weeks.
If there is still a reaction (when on home made) then resort to the medic one (or start there) and then you gradually introduce different protein/diet sources as you go along (again in 3-6 weekly blocks) therefore the body has time to react if its going to and you know exactly what has been added to the diet that has caused the reaction.

OR the allergen test is good and quicker but v expensive. Its a block on injections/surface contact depending on which you use (if I remember correctly) and the vet shaves and area on the dogs side, applies the test block and they are all labeled and any that go WOOMPH up in size = allergic reaction = problem identified.............. but can flag up false positives!!!

What are his symptoms sorry think i missed this!
frown.gif
 
Poor Bodo, can't really offer anything constructive. Just one thing, my mum had one of my bitches when Ushi was 8 years old, up until then Ushi had lived outside. She was a house dog with Mum and developed terrible itching , discoloured hair on her belly, bald etc. She was on same diet so vet put it down to contact allergy, something in mums carpet. When mum had to go into a care home Ushi came back to live with me, although she was in the house at night she was on a bed on quarry tiles, no carpet, and she grew a beautiful coat back.I know doesn't really relate to Bodo but after you have tried eliminate different feeds perhaps try the same with bed etc. I have also heard of quite a few dogs with grass allergies, when he was at the kennels was he exercised on grass at all or just concrete?
 
Thanks for all your replies.

Just a few notes in a block to all - he is not insured, stupid, stupid, stupid I know but after his treatment in June it would be impossible now.

He works at his belly/under arms/throat with his hind legs, bites/licks legs, paws and inner thighs and 'face-surfs'. He had been fine for several months but seemed to go off when I changed his food to Skinners, which is why I think it may be feed based, a change back to AG (which he had been fine on, previously) did no good and last week I switched him to raw.

I am saving up for the skin tests - we were going to get it done last year but he cleared up so nicely when we were away I discounted it. Again, dumb.

The water is spring water, from a well, so I don't know if that would have a bearing or not. It comes from the same source as the streams locally.

At kennels he was on concrete slabs the same as he is at home, except covered in sawdust, no box/bed. He was exercised on grass, but a different type to what we have here, this is mountainous and boggy, not so fertile.
I can't imagine it is pollen ATM as everything is covered in lots of snow?

He has not been in the house enough to react to the carpets in this way.

The plastic is an option, having read up, it can harbour bacteria that he might react to - I will see if our builders can take the pen apart and we will swap boxes (the other one is made of metal)

He has only been on raw for a week but so far he seems to react better to chicken than beef, he had beef the night before and yesterday morning when he seemed most uncomfortable.
However it is still early days, I know and I hope this is just the dry food working out of his system. Probably too much to hope for.

Again, thanks so much for all your help and advice and to those who sent PMs x
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top